PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Hampton Roads Transit unveiled their newly installed “Smart Stop” bus signs on Wednesday, with over 2,600 installed in our area.
Each “Smart Stop” sign comes equipped with a QR code. By scanning the code, customers can get real-time bus information, such as arrival times, route maps and schedules. There will also be a portal to report bus stop cleanliness and safety issues.
“If people are aware there’s going to be a delay, they are much more pleasant when they know when the bus is coming,” said HRT CEO and president, William Harrell.
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The technology was put into action this week at the Children’s Museum of Virginia. This project was five years in the making. HRT has made it a goal to raise their ridership numbers through appealing to the youth population.
HRT’s Chief Engineering and Facilities Officer, Sibyl Pappas, says allowing their customers to get this information directly onto their smart phones is a step in the right direction.
“We expect them to be choice riders of transit. We expect them to be people with drivers licenses in a few years who make the choice to take transit because it’s easy and convenient,” she told News 3.
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HRT is one of the few transit services in the nation pairing bus signs with this technology, and it will also be available on their ferry and light rail services as well.
“There’s also a money saving aspect to it, the signs themselves are easier to maintain which is great and then the data points also give us an opportunity to make sure we know where things are clean, where we may have to go and tidy up a bit as well so there’s a really good functionality to it,” said Communications Manager, Thomas Becher.
HRT leaders say this project has saved $600,000 because the new signs use a more cost-effective material than the previous ones. Crews can also scan the code after they have completed maintenance or cleaned up the stop, effectively using it as a checklist.
